The University of Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione has been voted the country's top Athletic Director through an anonymous survey by Sports Illustrated.

The survey was given to sports media professionals and athletic directors across the country. The two groups were asked to vote on the following two questions:

What factors determine how effective these folks are at their jobs? Who are the best three ADs in the business?

Castiglione was voted the top athletic director by the media and by athletic directors alike. The media evaluated athletic directors on the following factors: hiring and retaining coaches/staff, fundraising, accessibility/communication, crisis management, culture building, and innovation/creativity. The media described Castiglione as follows:

"Good outward reputation and has both maintained and built within the department, with a good number of sports finding consistent success. Seems to be a quality fund-raiser as well—especially important with the resources available at their in-state rival school."

According to athletic directors, the most important criteria for an AD included: culture building, hiring and retaining coaches/staff, fundraising, and crisis management. The country's ADs described Castliglione as follows:

“I don’t know anybody that says a bad word about Joe Castiglione and the amount of success they’ve had one and off the field, and what they’ve done there since he’s been there is remarkable."

Welcome to the first edition of the News 9 soccer blog. Several of us at News 9 and the News On 6 are fans of the beautiful game, and we wanted to make sure the sport was covered on our websites and apps. Each week, we'll do our best to cover the sport, starting with the beginning of the 2018-19 English Premier League season. Angel Rivera: The first week of the Premier League gave few surprises after a brief post World Cup holiday. Newly promoted Fulham and Cardiff City were handil...

Welcome to the first edition of the News 9 soccer blog. Several of us at News 9 and the News On 6 are fans of the beautiful game, and we wanted to make sure the sport was covered on our websites and apps. Each week, we'll do our best to cover the sport, starting with the beginning of the 2018-19 English Premier League season. Angel Rivera: The first week of the Premier League gave few surprises after a brief post World Cup holiday. Newly promoted Fulham and Cardiff City were handil...